Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : ISTANA HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 01/09/95
Tajuk/Title : OPENING OF "NATIONAL SEMINAR ON
PUBLIC SERVICE"
I am honoured to be invited to declare open the
National Seminar on Public Service with the theme:
Public Service - New Strategic Dimensions in the 21st
Century. I have been informed that members of the
Board of Directors of the Commonwealth Association for
Public Administration and Management (CAPAM), who are
having their meeting here tomorrow, have chosen to
participate in this Seminar as well. To our guests, on
behalf of the Government and the people of Malaysia, I
wish you all a happy stay in Kuala Lumpur.
2. Since CAPAM is here I would like to make reference
to the Public Service in the Commonwealth, with
particular focus on those commonwealth countries which
gained independence after the World War. In a way we
can consider ourselves fortunate that most of us
inherited from the British some experience in Public
Service. For the commonwealth countries this means that
we are familiar with each other's systems, with the
rules and regulation and the laws. These enable us to
work with each other more easily, even to train
in each other's countries.
3. But the structure and function of the public
service cannot be static. They have to respond to the
needs of the times. A purely colonial civil service
cannot possibly serve an independent nation. In the
colonial Public Service, the real head or chief or
minister responsible resided in London, in Whitehall to
be precise. The system of Government was not
democratic for the Colonial Civil Service effectively
ruled the colonial territories. They were powerful and
they answered only to their head in London or his local
representative, the Governors or High Commissioners.
4. The Legislative bodies, if there was any, were
filled with a majority of civil servants, members of
the local British Community and a few appointed locals.
The Legislature was very much an apparatus of the
colonial Government, headed by the Governor, a
bureaucrat. The Colonial administration was truly
bureaucratic, with the Public servants responsible
really to themselves. Public accountability was
therefore practically non-existent.
5. Independence brought in a new creature, the
politician. Whether democratic or otherwise, the
politicians oversee and exercise power over the public
service. This was a radical departure and the public
service had to adjust to a role where they do not have
the final say. Yet they remain the permanent wing
of the Government. The Government may change but the
Public Service remains.
6. In Malaysia the switch in roles was quite smooth
as a few civil servants who had taken up politics
became senior members of the independent Government.
They understood the role of the permanent civil service
and did not try to undermine them. But they did
initiate a change in attitude. The Public Service must
be answerable to the public. Of course, the elected
politicians as Ministers had to do the actual answering
in the Parliament or outside. But the Minister must
make sure that the Public servants understood that they
had to be sensitive to the needs of the public and to
serve them as true public servants.
7. As more and more projects and policies were
introduced which were intended for the public good, the
Public Service was forced to interact directly with
members of the public. In the Colonial days the
District Officer, for example, was practically the
local chief, feted and made much of. Now he has to
attend to all the complaints of the villagers, to meet
them and to try and deal with things affecting the
lives of the people.
8. Immediately after Malaysia's independence a Rural
Development policy was launched. This brought the
Public Service into the open, supervising projects and
implementing development plans hatched by the
politicians. Desk-bound Public servants just could not
remain desk-bound. They had to get out and meet the
people. Naturally none would like to see the plan
failed, especially as visits by ministers require not
just office briefings but also on-site visits.
9. The Civil Service of today remains very much a
professional service, quite non-partisan and willing to
serve whichever party or politician is in power. In
Malaysia this is essential as state Governments may
change and be formed by parties which are not the same
as the Central Government.
10. But the process of getting the Public Service more
involved in the affairs of the country and the needs of
the people never ceased. The most radical change in
Malaysia is the introduction of the Malaysia
Incorporated concept.
11. Hitherto, the Public Service merely implemented
Government policies and plans according to the
administrative rules and procedures. Whether the
results of applying the rules and methods are good or
bad for the nation, and for the people interacting with
the Government, was not too important.
12. Thus if an application made for a business permit
is wrongly worded or slightly incorrect, it will simply
be rejected. That the effect is to cause the applicant
to lose money or trade is not the concern of the Public
servant. He has done his work in the way prescribed
and for which he was paid. What happens to the client
is his problem.
13. Under the Malaysia Incorporated concept, the whole
nation is regarded as a Corporation and both the Public
servants and Private Sector people are responsible for
the success of the Corporation. They have to work
together for this success. The Public servant
understand that the failure of the private sector would
result in loss of revenue for the Government. Since
the revenue is used at least partly to pay the Public
servant, losses by the Private Sector have a direct
bearing on his own income. If the Civil servants want
better income, then the surest way is to ensure
Government revenues are increased through taxes paid
largely by the private sector.
14. More than that, the development of the whole
nation depends on the success of the private sector.
Obviously the more the private sector makes the
wealthier will be the nation. Jobs will increase and
there will be sufficient funds for public works, for
more amenities for the people, including the Public
servants.
15. The Public servants are partners in the
Corporation.If the Corporation, i.e. the Nation prosper,
then as partners, they will enjoy the dividends. More
than that, they will enjoy greater pride as the
prosperity and success of the nation is, to a
considerable extent, the result of the service provided
by the Public servants.
16. Under the Malaysia Incorporated concept the Public
servants are now interested not in just doing what is
prescribed administratively but in the end results.
They have to ensure that their work and their decisions
contribute to the success of the private sector. If
they don't then they must find out why, and they must
take the necessary action to overcome the mistakes or
the problems of their clients. In all these they must
be conscious that time is of the essence.
17. But in Malaysia, we went one step further. We
decided to reduce the size and role of the Government
and its functions and transfer Government jobs to the
private sector i.e. to privatise. It was thought at
one time that certain function must be done only by the
Government. Indeed the Communist and Socialists
believed that the Government should do everything,
including business.
18. Under Malaysia's privatisation programme nothing
is sacred. Everything that can be privatised will be
privatised.
19. Naturally this policy met with resistance by the
Public Service. If the Government has no work to do,
then what will happen to the Civil Servants? The
short answer to that is they will become businessmen.
And so, while many Government companies, agencies
and functions have been transferred to people already
in business,many have also gone to those civil servants
willing to leave the Government and set themselves up
as businessmen.
20. But the Government cannot wash its hands off these
functions altogether. It has to continue ensuring that
the public services formerly rendered by the Government
agencies and departments are properly rendered by the
privatised entities. And so a number of Government
officers has to be retained to supervise and check on
the services rendered, so that profit will not be the
only objective, but service must also go with it.
21. This puts a new twist to the responsibility and
function of the Public Service. It is now more a
supervisory body than an operational body. It can, if
it wants to be quite obstructive, look for faults and
failures. But then the Public Service has become a
partner in Malaysia Incorporated and it is in its
interests to see that the public and the nation are
well-served by the privatised entities. Being
obstructive and finding faults is certainly not going
to achieve this. It must be in every way helpful
without being irresponsible.
22. The Public Service in Malaysia is now more truly a
public service. The members are no longer Mandarins,
the officials whom the people must kow-tow to in order
to procure the services they are supposed to give. The
Public Service is not a colonial bureaucracy meant to
serve the colonial office and the metropolitan power.
The Public Service is now truly a servant of the
Public. It is not a Civil Service.
23. During the colonial days members of the Malaysian
Civil Service appended the letter `MCS' after their
names. The Malaysian Public Service no longer do so.
They are not a caste apart. They are very ordinary
people who have been given a special role-to ensure
that the nation is properly administered as a nation,
to implement policies of the elected Government and to
positively contribute toward national success as
targetted by the various national objectives.
24. Today the Public Service is part of the machinery
to make Malaysia a developed country by the year 2020.
The Vision has been spelt out very clearly. As a
partner in Malaysia Incorporated, the Public Service
must apply administration to the overall effort to
achieve growth and change the basic parameters of the
nation. Towards this end, procedures and functions
have been revised and simplified. And from time to
time they will be revised and revised again to ensure
that the administration serves the people and the
nation and not the other way round.
25. The Public i.e. the Nation must be served and the
Public Service is there to do just that-to serve the
Public.
26. On that note, I now have pleasure in declaring
open the National Seminar on Public Service.
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